Coin of the Day

Questions with purpose

Imagine a world where you could ask a question and get an answer from an expert through a messenger app. Imagine not having to repeat your answer to a question you have been asked time and time again. Sense is a startup that wants to fix these problems through their app, Sensay. Their platform was built upon 3 core beliefs: everyone is valuable, no one is alone, and everyone is a sensei. The technology underlying Sensay is a machine-learning AI, which strives to connect humans in a chatroom based on their interests. After your conversation is over, the app also allows you to tip some Sense tokens to the person on the other end, in gratuity for the help you received. Another impressive feature is the ability of the AI to study your responses to questions you have been asked previously – and then learns to answer on your behalf any similar questions other people ask you in the future. Check out their whitepaper here.

Bitcoin hits $6,000 and confidence is restored. Where do we go from here, and why are the banks not talking about their love for blockchain and crypto?

Let us all rejoice! A new week, a new high. Bitcoin surpasses its next milestone with a price of $6,100, and the market cap is currently 10x higher than it was at this time last year. Pretty freakin' impressive, if you ask us. Although Bitcoin isn't exactly known for it's quick transaction times, (apparently the popular currency can only handle between three and seven transactions per second...yikes) there are other currencies that fill this need pretty easily such as FLASH or IOTA. There is easily going to be an opportunity for crypto to replace other financial service companies, but not without a fight from the big guys.

The real-world use cases for crypto and blockchain are beginning to pile on, with Bank of America filing two patents for a blockchain-based system that would help track file processing in real time. Banks have been very quietly submitting patents related to cryptocurrency and blockchain for a while. Bank of America has filed for over 20 patents since 2014 that are related to crypto, and JP Morgan has famously and unsuccessfully filed 175 "Bitcoin-alternative" patents. Oh, and don't forget that Jamie Dimon (JP Morgan's CEO) said a few weeks ago that blockchain is good, while Bitcoin is bad. Looks like he's a sore loser.

While the government doesn't seem to really get Bitcoin, businesses sure do.

Charlie Rose conducted an incredibly interesting interview with a few crypto experts, including the CEO and CIO of Ark Investment Management. She had some powerful insight regarding the current state of affairs in the crypto space:

"The network value of Bitcoin when you include Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash is little over $100 billion. So it’s come up and it’s come very fast. But it’s at a fraction of Apple’s valuation, of Amazon’s valuation, and we think its a much bigger idea than either of those.”

This past weekend at tech conference Sibos, the Microsoft CEO issued a general challenge to the interbank messaging service Swift to find "useful" applications for blockchain tech; this likely won't pose too great of a challenge for the service, especially seeing as there's been a spring of messaging-based ICOs in the past year (see: Kik). It's been exciting to see big businesses embrace crypto without fear; while it may be several years before mainstream adoption of digital currency, blockchain may be the training wheels the government, banks, and the general public need.

So, Bitcoin Gold may not actually be ready for release for at least a few weeks, maybe even months. Off to a shaky start.

Despite a lot of legal uncertainty, consumer confidence in crypto is seriously growing. Many are seriously supporting the idea that Bitcoin will hit $10,000 (why stop there?).